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MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A north Minneapolis woman says she caught a Minneapolis Police Officer on video shooting her two dogs while responding to a burglary call at the residence Saturday night.
Jennifer LeMay says her two Staffordshire bull terriers, Rocko and Ciroc, survived the incident--though both were injured and required extensive medical treatment.
The officer showed up at LeMay's house after her older daughter accidentally tripped their home security system, though he did not show up until a half hour after the alarm was cancelled.
According to their owner, both animals are service dogs--Ciroc helps maintain emotional regulation and alleviate anxiety while Rocco is trained to identify seizures for LeMay's children.
"I told the sergeant I would've rather he shoot me than my dogs," LeMay said Sunday. "These just aren’t our dogs, they’re family members.”
On the security camera footage, the officer turns his back on the scene and jumps the fence out of the yard after discharging his weapon.
"[My daughter] overheard the officer from the back like, 'well I know one of them's alive,'" LeMay said. "They might come back physically, but will we ever know if they come back mentally and emotionally?"
The Minneapolis Police Department acknowledged the incident in a release Sunday, saying that the incident, per standard procedure, is under investigation.
We are aware of the recent incident involving MPD officers responding to an audible residential burglary alarm and while at this call an MPD officer discharged their firearm, striking two dogs belonging to the homeowner. Anytime an officer discharges their firearm in the line of duty there is an investigation that is completed by the Minneapolis Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit. We are in the process of reviewing the video posted online, as well as the officer's body camera video. We have reached out to the owner of the dogs and will continue to do so during the investigation. At this time there is no further information we can release.
A GoFundMe page was also created to help LeMay pay for the dogs' medical bills.